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Directing
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A Few Minutes with William (Bill) Lustig
Lustig speaks with MM about his career and what it takes to stay at the top of the moviemaking game over the long term.
Bill Lustig has been appreciated by the French as a director with a unique, unflinching cinematic eye for years. At home in L.A., he?s best known as a cult midnight moviemaker who has crafted some of the most fun, frightening, gory films of the ?80s, including Maniac, Vigilante, and Relentless. Intelligent, articulate and intimidatingly well-steeped in film lore, the hardworking Lustig recently began a new career as a film restorer and DVD producer with Anchor Bay Entertainment.
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Things I’ve Learned as a MovieMaker
The process of each actor is different. Some are intuitive, some love to rehearse, some hate to rehearse. In some instances, you may want to rehearse even when they don't want to; it's just a matter of them understanding the process. Actors are so exposed. Directors are behind the camera crafting our world while the actors are exposed in front of the camera, exposed with their emotions. It's a matter of finding the best atmosphere for them to work.
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From Mexico to Hollywood and Back
Writer-Director Alfonso Cuarón discusses Y Tu Mama Tambien
Alfonso Cuarón's Y Tu Mama Tambien is a film
set in Mexico about two young men on the cusp of manhood who
take up one summer with a beautiful young woman several years
their senior. A sexy road movie with a dispassionate, often
blunt take on modern day Mexican social and political realities,
Cuarón's latest work showcases his off-the-cuff visual
and narrative style that nearly got him banned by Mexican
censors.
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Things I’ve Learned as a MovieMaker
Be serious about it. The characters have to believe in the situation they are in and play it for real.
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The Triumph of Clare Peploe
Bertolucci's better half scores another directorial victory
Clare Peploe didn't plan it this way. The writer/director
whose new picture, The Triumph of Love (at theaters
this month), she adapted for the screen with husband Bernardo
Bertolucci (The Last Emperor, The Conformist) never
meant to become a moviemaker. Her entry into the film business
came serendipitously, through her friendships with moviemakers
in Italy, including renowned director Michelangelo Antonioni
(Zabriskie Point, Blow Up). Her latest film,
The Triumph of Love, stars Mira Sorvino and Ben Kingsley
in a spry and deliberately modern take on the 18th
century French farce by Pierre Marivaux.
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Things I’ve Learned as a MovieMaker
It was a good place to make mistakes and be an idiot--but learn. You make all these videos that nobody will ever see. If someone can pay for it, even better.
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Woman on the Verge
Nicole Holofcener discusses her latest film, Lovely & Amazing
After cutting her teeth on the set with such notable moviemakers
as Woody Allen and Allison Anders, Nicole Holofcener achieved
remarkable success as a writer-director with her first feature,
Walking and Talking. Her latest film, Lovely &
Amazing, a dysfunctional family story that is at once
entertaining and poignantly human, opens in theaters later
this month.
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Things I’ve Learned as a MovieMaker
Treat the writer with respect if he or she is any good-and have him or her on the shoot.
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Things I’ve Learned as a MovieMaker
LA is ironically and paradoxically a dangerous place to be if you make movies. Because it's almost impossible to keep a sense of film as a representation of life and to get connected to what's going on outside. In other words, if you're going to make films about making films, that's a good idea for a film. But to continue in a career in which it's all self-reference and self-quotation or quotation from friends or enemies, it's such a distortion of what film can and should be.
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Sacrifice Yes, Compromise, No
The Dangerous Life of Director Peter Care
David Fincher, Spike Jonze and Jonathan Glazer are just a
few directors who've carried their success in the world of
music videos to the big screen. The latest director to follow
that trend is England's Peter Care, whose The Dangerous
Lives of Altar Boys made a splash at Sundance earlier
this year and is at theaters now.
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Invitation to a Head Fracture
Straight Talk from Maverick Harvard Man James Toback
Compromising is not the first word that comes to mind when
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
You can't have enough pre-production. There's never enough post-production.
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More Than Master of the Feel-Bad Film
Neil LaBute talks about moving from the jet-black humor of In the Company of Men and Nurse Betty to the romantic Possession
Neil LaBute moves from the jet-black humor of Nurse
Betty to the romance of Possession
His plays and films are about people-mainly men-behaving badly.
They're about relationships, which means men vs. woman, where
nasty people lie, cheat and betray each other. But Possession,
Neil LaBute's new movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow, is
adapted from a prize-winning literary romance. So why the
switch?
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
You must have a clear vision of the film-every frame, every rhythm, every nuance, every sound. However, you must also remain "open." You must be ready to embrace surprising opportunities, [the] happy (or unhappy) accidents and be extremely collaborative.
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An Obsession for Style and Content
Writer/Director Mark Romanek Discusses One Hour Photo
Director Mark Romanek made his mark as a
music video director working with Lenny Kravitz, Nine Inch
Nails, Janet Jackson, Beck and Madonna, and he has an eye
for images. In his debut feature, One Hour Photo,
he's concerned with the surface of things. The film does for
photo processing guys what Alfred Hitchcock did for hotel
clerks in Psycho. Just how creepy and harmless is
Sy Parrish, the character at the center of the film? Is he
a villain or someone to pity? Romanek lets you make up your
own mind. Here, he discusses his debut film, putting the comedic
Williams in a deeply dramatic role, and his own obsessions.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
I learned very, very early-I spotted it at the age of twenty-two-that writing and directing could become inextricably one creative process.
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Balls in Blizzards
The Magic and Mystery of Mike Leigh
The characters in Mike Leigh's new picture,
All Or Nothing, are so fully realized, so three dimensional,
that at times you'll want to question whether you're watching
fiction film or documentary drama. For all its blunt realism,
All Or Nothing is ultimately a film about love, hope
and redemption. Starring Timothy Spall and Lesley Manville,
the picture features the sort of rich, honest performances
that fans have come to expect from a Mike Leigh project. On
a recent visit to LA, Mike Leigh told MM
about his unique approach to moviemaking and how it all came
together on All Or Nothing.
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Things We’ve Learned as Moviemakers
Not only do you have to eat, but you need to spend time with your subjects as fellow human beings and not just as filmmakers. There's no better time to do this than over a meal. Put your camera down occasionally and experience life with your subjects. How can you hope to understand your subject's life if you don't experience it a bit for yourself?
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The Curse of Quixote
Documentarians Louis Pepe & Keith Fulton get Lost in La Mancha with Terry Gilliam
The Terry Gilliam School of Film may not be an education in conventional moviemaking, but it's certainly provided Louis Pepe and Keith Fulton with a world of experience.
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What I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Don't wait to start your documentary until "all the funding is in place."
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Lives That Deserve to Be Told on Film
The balancing act of Stevie's Steve James
Though Steve James' new documentary, Stevie, is being
touted as the "long awaited follow-up" to his 1994 film, Hoop
Dreams, the past nine years have not been idle ones. After
the triumphant success of Hoop Dreams, he went on to
direct three feature films—Passing Glory, Prefontaine
and Joe & Max. This spring he makes his return
to the documentary genre with the very personal Stevie,
which won the Best Documentary Cinematography award at
Sundance, and which will be released by Lions Gate on March
28th.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Films were marked by the personality of the filmmakers. Even when they were reinventing genres, the filmmakers didn't just churn out marketable product-the made great films which were also box office hits with the public. The movies were smart and the studios were making money.
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A Moviemaker Under the Influence
Richard LaGravenese discusses his non-fiction debut
Chat with any moviemaker long enough, and the subject of the
"New Hollywood" films of the 1970s is likely to
come up. It was this decade that helped forge the relationship
between moviemakers Richard LaGravenese and Ted Demme—and
was the impetus for their new collaboration, A Decade
Under the Influence.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Never be afraid of being fired. Stick to your guns if you know something is right. You'll usually be respected for it later.
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Lessons from Confidence Man
Q & A with director James Foley
After the screening of his new film last month, James Foley,
the director of such modern American classics as Glengarry
Glenn Ross and After Dark My Sweet talked about
his craft to a packed AFI audience.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
One of the smartest things I did was I cold-called a bunch of young directors, and just said "you don't know me but I'm about to direct a movie.
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Billy Ray’s Shattered Glass
The screenwriter and first-time director takes a closer look at the media and moviemaking process
Years before Jayson Blair led the axe to fall on the staff-and
reputation-of the New York Times, another young, hotshot
journalist was turning fiction into fact at the offices of
The New Republic. Billy
Ray's Shattered Glass examines the world of writer
Stephen Glass-and the precarious relationship between human
nature and an unbiased media.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
If things go wrong, you have to believe in your film. When we came back to Los Angeles, after shooting in North Carolina, we still needed to raise lots more money to finish the film. What kept me going was the belief that the film was something that I had to finish.
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Low-Budget Horror Film a Career-maker for first-time moviemaker
Much-anticipated Cabin Fever brings old fashioned terror back to the cinema
For years, Eli Roth, the 31-year old writer-director of Cabin
Fever, wondered
if the horror genre had a place in the world of independent cinema-or any cinema,
for that matter. It took six years for Roth to raise the financing for Cabin
Fever, a film he shot in the grainy backwoods of North Carolina in 2001 for "way
less than a million dollars." Eventually it sold to Lions Gate for a staggering
$3.5 million-along with the promise of a wide theatrical release and an additional
$15 million in advertising and promotion.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
I try to remember that even if finally a film is authored by one person--and I believe it is--the conundrum is that it's achieved by many, many hundreds of people. It's as if they're all holding onto your pen as you're writing. And if they don't hang on--if they don't support the pen--you can't make your piece of work. So I've never allowed myself the delusion that I was doing it by myself. I am extremely grateful to the crew, and I let them know I am.
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MovieMaker Sneak Peek
Mythology of Anthony Minghella, Storyteller
Anthony Minghella is part of that rare breed of
auteur who favors quality over quantity, releasing very
few films--but gaining high critical praise for each
effort. Making his feature debut with Truly Madly
Deeply in 1991, Minghella's subsequent projects have
totaled only two: The English Patient in 1996,
for which he won an Oscar, and The Talented Mr. Ripley in
1999 (for which he was also nominated). This Oscar season
is sure to bring Minghella's name back to the minds of
voters, as the long-awaited big screen adaptation of
Charles Frazier's novel, Cold Mountain, is set
for theaters this December, and features an all-star
cast that includes Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Renée Zellweger,
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Donald Sutherland,
Giovanni Ribisi.
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King of the Ants
After 20 years, director Stuart Gordon is still breaking new ground
King of the Ants, the latest cringefest from director
Stuart Gordon, who gave us the classic Re-Animator
(1985), is another gruesome foray into the dark side of human
nature. His coupling of a brutal revenge story (by acclaimed
British author Charlie Higson) with a minimal budget (Gordon's
wife provided catering for cast and crew) has resulted in
a streamlined, neo-noir thriller with macabre overtones. This
movie is sure to be a Halloween night favorite. In this interview,
the influential talent recaps his horror career, from pre-Re-Animator
days staging David Mamet plays with Chicago's Organic Theatre
to his present success.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
When you do a movie for a studio, it's gonna be somewhat homogenized. But a smaller movie like the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre just came out of nowhere and horrified everybody. The fact that it was shot in 16 millimeter made it seem even more real. I would put Audition and 28 Days Later in the same category-they're not studio films. The small movies, where the director is capable of anything and not held back by studio pressures, are the most frightening.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
I storyboard extensively; it helps me to learn my film. Sometimes the boards don't work on the set and that's fine, but it's something to start with-a blueprint that can be deviated from, if necessary.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
There's no underestimating the power of the detail of real locations, whether you build it or go there. The amount of subtle information that people can absorb, from anything from the quality of light to the detail in the background, has an incredibly powerful impact on performance and on the audience.
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Video Views Pick: Wanted
The editors of VIDEO VIEWS magazine pick Wanted, based on the Mark Millar graphic novel, as the best new DVD this week. Featuring eight bonus featurettes and a cast that includes James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman, home video watchers can't go wrong.
Posted 12.3.08 | Video Views Pick | 1 comment
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